Improvement in machines for washing and fulling cloth



Patened Oct. 17,1 1871.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEErcE SATTERLEE ARNOLD, OF PHILMONT, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR WASHING AND FULLING CLOTH.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 119,958, dated October 17, 1871.

To all whom t may concern:

` Be it known that I, SATTERLEE ARNOLD, of Philmont, in the county of Columbia and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machinery for Washing and Fulling Cloth in the piece, and Cleansing Wool; and I do hereby declare that the following' is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention is designed for the twofold purpose of washing or washing and fulling cloth in the piece, and washing, scouring, and rinsing' wool or detached pieces of goods. Knit or woven fabrics often require to be shrunk or fulled while washing. The object of my machine is to not only economize labor and soap, and give at the saine time the fulling effect, it' desired, but, by passing the goods continuously through as many different solutions or processes, successively, as the nature of the goods or the effect to be produced thereon may require, secure a more perfect cleansing, without the labor ot' rehandling at each successive operation.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l represents a side elevation of the machine, and Fig. 2 a vertical longitudinal section of tank A on an enlarged scale.

The internal structure of the other tanks, B

l and C, is precisely similar, except that they are not necessarily required to contain the same number of rollers.

A, B, and C are three tanks, water-tight, placed,

` B and C, in a plane above A, so that the. liquid contents of B may be drawn into A. These tanks are to be made a little wider than any piece of cloth to be treated therein, and their dimensions otherwiserwill be in proportion to the number of rollers to be employed therein, which number may be varied, as found expedient. Each tank is provided with a system of transverse rollers, lying in parallel, horizontal, and vertical planes, and so geared together, by means of end pinions and intermediate pinions, that all are rotated together by one master-pinion, D, to which motion is communicated from the driving-shaft. In each tank said master-pinion D is rotated by apulley, D', on the outer end of its shaft, which passes through a stufling-box, and a cord, d, passing around a pulley, d', on the driving-shaft E. It will be seen that when said master-pinion D rotatcs it will act immediately upon the two rollers on each side, with whose end pinions it engages, and intermediately upon the subordinate pinions e and c', and all the other rollers in the tank, so as to rotate them all at the same velocity, and each in a contrary direction to the roller or rollers with which it engages. rlhe number of tanks and the number of rollers in each tank may be varied, as found expedient, though for ordinary use I prefer three tanks, as shown in the drawing. Over each tank, at the rear end thereof, is a pair of squeeze-rollers, geared together by end pinions, and rotated by a pulley, F, on the end oi' one of them, and a cord, j', passing around the same, and also around a pulley, F', on the drivin g-shat't. One pair ofsaid squeezerollers j" f is shown in cross-section in Fig. 2. rhe journals of the rollers in the tanks have their bearings in small blocks fitted into rectangular vertical grooves g in the sides of the tanks, and these bearing-blocks are separated by small blocks of rubber or other elastic substance, also iitted into said grooves, and by means of setscrewsg, passing through a cap-plate, G, said rollers may be pressed more closely together or allowed to spring asunder to adjust them to the thickness of the material to be operated upon, the gear-cogs being so constructed as to allow some variation in the proximity ofthe rollers to each other without detriment to the proper engagement of the cogs.

For washing and fulling, tank A should contain lukewarm soapsuds, tank B a strong hot alkaline solution, and tank C a running stream of clear cold Water. It is manifest, however, that the solutions` in the tanks may be varied according to the effect desired to be produced upon the material operated upon. A piece of cloth is first inserted between two rollers at c in tank A, and thence passes to and fro through the whole system of rollers in said tank, as indicated by arrows in Fig. 2, coming out at c', thence up through squeeZe-rollersf f', and over into tank B, and subsequently into tank C, in each otwhich it passes in the same manner through a similar system of rollers successively, until it is delivered through the third and last pair of squeezerollers, cleansed from all impurities, to be wound into rolls, or passed directly to the drying-room.

It is essential that the rollers in each tank be in near proximity to each other, so that the cloth in passing through them will be supported at short intervals, so as not to sag down between the pairs of rollers through which it is passing, and to effect this object I have devised the system of gearing herein described, consisting of end pinions on the rollers and intermediate pinions, as shown in Fig. 2. 1

The pieces of cloth to be operated upon arev sewn together at their ends, so that any number maybe passed continuously through the machine, and a piece should always remain in the machine, to which another may be sewn.

It will be seen that the action of the rollers in the tanks carries the cloth along automatically and continuously through all the tanks successively, each pair of rollers through which it passes squeezing' the suds therefrom, to be immediately absorbed again, which operation is repeated many times, the number of times depending on the number of rollers employed.

The action of the rollers works evenly on every part of the piece, and does not fret the cloth, which is washed, fulled, rinsed, and squeezed comparatively dry by a continuous operation without any intermediate handling.

Vhen the machine is used for cleansing' wool or small pieces of goods, it is to be provided with two endless aprons of net-work or coarse open cloth, so arranged upon supplemental rollers that they will travel together through all the rollers in the tanks, but separate on passing out of the last tank, and return separately to the place of entering the first tank. Before entering the first tank the lowermost of these two aprons is arranged to run for some distance horizontally, forming a table, on which the wool or other material is spread 5 and at or near the point of entering the tank the two aprons should be brought together between two supplemental rollers, inclosing the wool between them, in which condition they will pass through all the tanks, and separate to discharge the wool on passing out of the last. In this ease the endless aprons should be made to enter between the two upper tiers of rollers in the tank, at w, Fig. 2, instead of entering between the two lower tiers, and should be made to travel through the rollers in the reverse order to that indicated by the arrows in the drawing.

In passing' through the several systems of rollers between said endless aprons, and being subjected to repeated squeezings, the wool or detached pieces of goods will become thoroughly scoured and rinsed without being torn, fretted, tangled, or curled by the operation.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination of two or more tanks for containing cleansing, or cleansing and fulling solutions, each tank having a system of rollers rotating together therein, as described, through which the cloth is continuously carried automatically through all the tanks, and subjected to repeated squeezings, substantially as herein described.

2. In combination with the said tanks A, B, and C, or any two of them, provided with rollers, as described, the squeeze-rollers pertalning to said tanks respectively, substantially as shown and described.

3. In combination with rollers arranged in vertical tiers, as described, so that each pair in the sa-me vertical series will squeeze the cloth, as described, rubber or other elastic substance between the journal-bearings of the rollers and setscrews to press said bearings together or allow them to spring' asunder to adjust the squeeze of the rollers to the thickness of the material operated upon, substantially as described.

SATTERLEE ARNOLD.

Witnesses WM. A. HARDER, 

